So glad you saw it. We couldn't believe how well you played it! Adding link in desciption!

@@GetSidewaysReacts thank you so much ! 😉

Cracking J-B!

Yes I agree! You guys please put J-BD’s KZfaq link there too. You did a great presentation introducing the pipe organ, and I would tell my students to watch this episode too but not until my colleague’s video is acknowledged and the link included.

@@JenniferChou The link has been up, it's in the description

Clever

@@GetSidewaysReacts 😅

there is a similar joke, a guy dies and goes to heaven hears and hears an organ playing, whos that?? he asks,oh that's god , he thinks he's bach.

Nice one... it’s kinda true

That's by far the best definition of Bach I ever heard. Thanks a million!

"why do i hear the boss music!?!"

I've experienced the lope organ live. Holy crap it was incredible!

Not only that, but imagine that you're like 17 years old, you've lived in a small farming village your entire life. The only music you've ever heard have been from traveling bards with a little lute or a recorder or something. It's fun, it's a nice little distraction from the drudgery of farming. But then you gotta go to the nearest large town for some kind of supplies or what have you. And you see a gothic cathedral for the first time. Looking absolutely impossible. And you attend a service, and they play their organ, which is the size of the entire building. The incense in the air, the music surrounding you. This was an all consuming sensory experience unlike anything you've ever gone through in your life at the time. The closest they could've ever come to the full-body experience of a modern concert. And it was potentially a once in a lifetime experience.

I don't have to imagine hearing this in a cathedral. I DID hear it in a cathedral. I was at school in Carlisle (UK) in the 1960s. One afternoon I skipped school and wondered around the city center for a while. I ended up in the magnificent Carlisle Cathedral, which is spectacular in it's own right. The cathedral was empty. The massive cavernous space almost completely silent. I sat down close to the rear of the large central nave and after a few minutes I saw the organist enter from the side and sit at the massive organ. He sat there for a while, doing I don't know what. And at one point he looked round, saw me sitting there, and nodded. Then he started to play. He played the entire Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor -I like think for me. Hearing the piece played in that place, the kind of venue it was WRITTEN to be played in, was truly amazing. The low notes reverberate through your solar plexus. And the music transports you. Overwhelming.

As the daughter of a church organist...you need to be in the choir loft feeling the whole balcony shake to really get it lol.

Absolutely insane. It’s like memorizing a novel word for word. He’s probably practiced this 1,000 times and played it 1,000 more.

​@@modelcitizen1977 yes sure

Sometimes that's easier. Can you imagine trying to turn pages of a score and keep up with where you are on the pages while trying to play all of this? I studied piano for several years, and with some pieces it was just easier to memorize things; once you have it, your mind does not consciously think about it; you just turn yourself loose and it automatically flows from you.

​@@LynnThompsonAuthor Actually, most musicians do memorize the musical pieces/songs (whichever genre) they play. The sheets are most of the time just used as a safety net/visual guide.

Consider that this piece isn't by far the most difficult one ever composed for organ!

Nice story! Do know how the organ builder is called?

@@dakr1770 No I do not- it has been many years since I have seen the organ up close, as I haven't lived in St. Michael, Minnesota since I was 18, and am now 55 years old. When I was young, I did have occasion to be up in the choir loft on a regular basis where the console was located since I was a member of the children's choir, and would accompany my father when he would sing in the adult choir, but I don't recall seeing a maker's plate on the console. My father had told me who it was and where the instrument was being sent for it's overhaul in the 1990s, when it was being disassembled, but I just don't remember. I wish I did!

@@marcialavine1272 thanks for your answer. But this is a long time ago so it's clear that you can't remember.

and it's wasted playing religious trash in a house of lies. Sad.

@@TheGuruStud Without that "religious trash" as you call it, there wouldn't be ANY modern music. None. All modern music has its roots in classical religious music. If people back then had no interest in improving their worship, there would have been no innovation in music whatsoever. Your ignorance of musical history shows, I'm sorry to say, and denigrating religious music from any era only proves that ignorance, and doesn't say anything about that which you try to belittle, except that ignorance. And I am not a practicing catholic any longer- I am not even Christian- so don't even bother trying to say I'm defending the Church. I am defending MUSIC- from people who hate for hate's own sake, such as you, as you perpetuate lies of your own. What is truly sad is that you feel qualified to judge anything you know nothing about.

and his children were all good composers too. not sure about anything after that

@@Johnadams20760 they were rubbish compared to JSB, he still stands out as the best of all time. Paganni, mozart beethoven ect dont come close either.

No argument, he IS the best. Anyone who disagrees is a tone deaf moron.

i have played in orchestras my entire life including interlochen national arts/music camp which is world renowned, been to the DSO many many times and played and listend to and read up on tons of music. Bach is one of the best. one of the top 3 easily. bach, mozart and beethoven are the top 3 and can be in any order. mozart was the most gifted by far. it is tough to compare though given he died at age 35. if mozart lived even til only 40 there wouldn't even be a debate. if he lived to over 70 like Bach did, same thing. but I absoltuely love bach. and all i said was that Bach's children were excellent composers. for you to come on here after my simple statement and the way you approcah it, you are a self serving intellectual snob sorry. you just are

@@Johnadams20760 beethoven was formulaic, his best was moonlight sonata which stands out as different. JSB's kids did some decent stuff but not even close to JSB and i dont rate them near even mozart and beethoven. Mozart came later, and style had developed as a result and was good. But nothing mozart did compares to this piece and air on a g string too. Being prolific does not make you the best. Doing something far beyond what anybody else was doing or did for many years is what JSB did. And nothing has equalled it since. Coming close alot of times does not cut it.

That instrument sounds like it would start ripping my skin off

There really is nothing like live pipe organ.

I weep every time I hear it in person

100% yes. Heard it performed in a packed Royal Albert Hall on the RAH's enormous organ at least 30 years ago and it's impact has stayed with me to this day.

@@edsiefker1301Absolutely true - especially one that has 32’ reeds in the Pedal organ.

A real German Jokester that Johann!

I believe he also said that "the power is in the pedals".

@@hlcepeda Dunno if he said that or not, but it's unquestionably true that the power of an organ is in the pedals.

Except to get the note to sound when you want it, you need to press the key a fraction of a second before the note sounds. This is because the pipes require air to fill them before they make a sound. The 64 foot long pipes are like 5 stories tall and a couple feet (give or take) in diameter. The highest notes are roughly the size of a pencil. (The deeper the note, the longer the delay.) It's amazing.

we go to the club for the subs we go to church for the bass pipes

Here is a video one of the best organ player performing toccata and fugue on one of the best baroque pipe organs. He waits for the music to breath... it is (as supposed to from my point of view) 12 minute long... He uses the building itself as an instrument. When you hear THAT live, it shakes your whole body, and you hear sounds no Hi-Fi speakers can reproduce. It is an experience for a lifetime! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fK5-f8d5yp7ZqI0.html

I’ve played pipe organ. It is the ultimate acoustic sound trip

The first time I heard a pipe organ go that low it was incredible. It rumbled me out of my seat in tune to the music.😮😮😮😮 This has to be heard in person to get the full effect.❤

It is like living inside and earthquake.

I've always said Bach is Heavy Metal and that the bands that think they are Heavy Metal, are Lightweight Metal compared to Bach.

Yes, Karl Richter!

Heavy Metal is Portable Metal. Bach is THE METAL GODS ARE CALLING FOR YOU Metal.

If it's metal before metal was a thing then It's not metal! 🤦

No, bach is no metal! But R&R!

worth mentioning since they are counterpoint compositions, their harmonic relation is not the first aspect regarding them, but rather the independence of each voice. And no, i am pretty sure it could not be written in tabs. In my opinion this works don't really fit inside the mind of most musicians, and i am a guitarist. The guitar nor violin nor pretty much any other instrument is completely unable to replicate the power and complexity of this work. And on the belief of God: I believe that, after really seeing this works and listening to them, if you do think seriously about it, you will sooner or later realize that the closest to God is the human mind itself.

If today you hear his voice harden not your heart.

From some book on the life of J. S. Bach, I read that Bach wanted his music to be to the glory of God, btw, I have an older friend of family (he was my oldest sister's second husband for most of the 1980's, they live together, but not married), my oldest sister is Christian, he isn't, as he has doubts regarding the existence of God/Jesus, one time he told me in person, that he doesn't enjoy anything by J. S. Bach, I think it's interesting that you enjoy the music played in a church, despite whatever reason/s for yourself to not be religious.

​@@javierdiazsantanaYou can actually find some good versions of this for guitar. I think it sounds beautiful on guitar, but it still doesn't have the power of the organ due to all the complex chords and the range of notes being played at once.

Churches alone are a reason to visit many cities, towns and villages in Europe. Each church is a museum in and of itself.

I don't think there is any information existing about when this piece was written so I am wondering when you say it was early in Bach's career.

It's the QUEEN of Instruments" You are confusing something. The organ is "female article"

My grandfather played a pipe organ at church. Dad worked the bellows.

​@@MrBulky992 it's a large debate in the organ circles if bach wrote it at all....

Yet, it was Mozart who called the pipe organ the 'King of Instruments'. ijs

Passacaglia and fugue in c minor is an absolute masterpiece

His Passacaglia is indeed an unsurpassed masterpiece.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pLyfea9-xKiol6c.html

Toccata in d "dorian" would also be a good choice.

I'd go with the "little fugue" in Gm and the Fantasia and Fugue in Gm myself.

i agree, heard it in Dresden on the organ Bach played on, just mindblowing...

Yeah hearing it in an American church isn’t that much of an experience because we feel the need to put carpets In our churches and that castrates the reverb of the organ and doesn’t let it sing like organs in Europe do. Finding an organ in the us with good reverb is like finding a needle in a haystack

@@SoggySandwich80 Really ? You have CARPET in your churches?

@@tomjoad1363 yes I've visited a number of American churches and they have thick carpets. Very strange.

I had the chance to listen it in the Strasbourg cathedral... it was magic, as if you go back in time !

👍 I thought the same. (Incidentally, I play organ and violin).

As a pipe organ builder and amateur organist, this is exactly how I felt, too!

Some romantic pipe organs have 64 foot bass pipes you can't play them separately because we can't even hear those low tones but you can add them under the 32 foot bass pipes for even more power. It's like a wall of sound hitting you in the face.

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky were sent into space voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/

@@foxjacket Stravinsky definitely does not belong there.

Same story is attributed to Carl Sagan when choosing what sounds to go on the Voyager record.

As long as you're boasting in God, who gave Bach and the other greats their great talents. I always wonder it Bach and Vivaldi (who worked for the churches) were saved and are in heaven. They are examples of God's beauty worked out in their hands and feet.

@@walterf6993 Gawd is a delusion. Stop holy rolling, thanks.

Damn...painfully well said!

Actually, Rick was quoting Pat Metheny. But it’s true nonetheless.

Listen to anything played by Xaver Varnus. He is amassing.

I have that album as well as their take on Mozart. Greatest vocal group of its time. No wonder people have been in awe of Bach for centuries. Well, he was kind of forgotten after his death when his type of music no longer was vogue but rediscovered in the 19th century.

Bach was the original "jazzer".

The first In EUROPE.

Not really! The pipes are the accustic chambers. The buildings accoustic is said to be an important stop for every organ, yes. But technical, every organ is a "stand alone" instrument like every other accoustic instrument, too.

That was Stockhausen. Bach only played the necessary notes.

He can play a song with so many singing voices. I mean at least 4 leads at the same time

And music such as this illuminates our souls.

So Bach is metal?

Improvisation was pretty much the norm even before Bach - recordings did not exist and sheet music was rare and expensive so most musicians would learn to play by ear.What he really worked hard on - and is probably his big contribution - is making the most of and spreading the knowledge and acceptance of the well-tempered scale and tuning, which makes changing key DURING a piece possible.

That's what I always say ❤

12Tone did a video on why Metal needs be to played loud and the physical part. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bsx1l6x8rJ3UnWw.html

Go to a symphony. Hearing a symphony orchestra live is mind blowing.

@@thomasmartin8362 I'm sorry, this piece is meant for the organ. I have had the pleasure of hearing the piece both in orchestra, and on a 18th century Wagner organ, which is similar to what Bach would have played on, and on a 1930s Steinmayer orgel which basically uses as full medival cathedral as the instrument. This piece is just so much more powerful on the organ than in orchestra that is not even comparable.

@@kattkatt744 I was thinking beyond this piece and the power of a large acoustic ensemble. Of course, the symphony orchestra is best with music composed just for it. And being there live is completely different than listening to a recording on even a high end system.

A big pipe organ cannot be recreated on headphones or speakers. It surrounds you and you can feel the harmonics in the air around you and the 32 foot pipes thump in your chest.

I would say Bach is the only reason that humanity should be remembered altogether!

July 28, 1750. The day the music died.

And yet its probable he didn't write it

@@EmeraldPixelGamingEPG And Mozart didn't write the Requiem, and Beethoven didn't write the 9th, and ... bla bla bla.

He wrote this Toccata betweent 1703 and 1707. He was 18 when he started writing it.

sorry to hear that

Sorry for you loss.

What a beautiful energy your brother brought to people...he was special 💗

Your brother left a huge mark on those that heard him play. Rest in Peace.

Jup, the deep feeling of that sound in church. Us choir boys got tastes of organists having fun during rehearsal breaks, probably showing off. No wonder we know that Bach piece.

"Beethoven Symphony No 7, 2nd Movement, that's all I am going to say, nice reaction," Yes, most definitely - but a bit out of context.

My personal favorite. After 40 years of appreciating classical music. I always come back to the 7th. It just makes me happy.

And after that, Jacques Loussier Trio has an entire album of jazz variations on that movement.

I saw SKY play this at the then Southampton Gaumont (now the Mayflower Theatre) in the mid 1980s with my parents as a birthday treat for me and my stepdad - whose birthdays are on consecutive days! Their version is a great modern interpretation.

Virgil Fox called the first three notes "Bach calling to God". I think he was right.

I'd love to

Or at least use a good PA with a sufficient sub instead of headphones...

The room we're in has 11 speakers including two subwoofers. We could listen again on that but I'd rather hear one in person. I couldn't even imagine how incredible it would sound.

@@GetSidewaysReacts I know a lot of very fine organists all around the country, and most of them are willing to introduce new people to the instrument. I know I certainly am. If you're ever in central NC, let me know and I'll get you in to see a good organ somewhere! Haha

@@GetSidewaysReacts So here's the thing: Even a really good sub or pair of them can't give you the truly visceral experience of a pipe whose native frequency is 32Hz (low, low C♮). The sub(s) just can't move that much air... (And even-though the science of acoustics had yet to be invented, those designers knew empirically how, and had the math, to proportion a room around the instrument that would amplify the frequencies produced by the pipes. They'd already been doing it for quite a while by Bach's time.)

Wow. Thanks so much for all the info. What far more difficult piece would you recommend? Can you reply with a link below my comment?

@@GetSidewaysReacts OK my friend. I prepared a few links for you. Some by Bach, some by others and also some improvisations and more fun stuff, hoping that you'll really befriend this magnificent and often overlooked instrument. First a fun presentation of the organ of the Berlin Philharmonic by a rebel virtuoso, Cameron Carpenter. He's a bit of a madman, but he has a huge technique: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gpeRerOW1r2ydqs.html Then a few links with some less known but wonderful pieces by Bach. Two short preludes played by my friend, the world famous Canadian-Hungarian virtuoso, Varnus Xaver: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pNKlfNersMDdk3k.html Next, the monumental Fantasy in G minor: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pqeHjZCkv9jKhJc.html One of my favorites is his D minor Fugue (not the one that you just listened to) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rrOorJqWt724emg.html A maybe less technically challenging but incredibly beautiful piece by the Belgian composer Cesar Franck (fun fact: when I first looked at one of his portraits it was quite scary, he looked EXACTLY like my late father): kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bb2PlbOFr8e7kWg.html By the way, the woman sitting next to my friend Varnus Xaver is Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer Choplin, probably the best improviser alive today. Next, here's a funny arrangement of a thunderous piece by Leon Boellmann, for organ and brass instruments kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pNyPqpxqr9OZgZ8.html And finally a few improvisations. First Xaver improvises in Vivaldi's style: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mcpjnriGm9ayiZc.html The same guy in a more modern style over "La Marseillaise" (The National Anthem of France): kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d96caLqTpsuvp6s.html When our world was separated in two by Communism, many legendary and hugely talented artists ended up being confined to their country, even though they could have achieved world fame. One of them was Melinda Kistetenyi (Xaver's former teacher), an absolute genius who is practiaclly unknown to the world. Here you can see and hear her improvise in Baroque style on live television on a melody that she just got from the audience: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oK5deaiC15_NqGg.html Before I wrap up this, I add a funny video of an organist in the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. In the year before this was made, he had an accident and for months he couldn't use his left hand, so - like any true genius - he used that time to practice playing the pedal. Here's the results: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o8V4l9Wq3MvWd3k.html And I saved the best for last. Pierre Cochereau was probably the greatest organist of the 20th century. Here he plays Bach's Passacaglia on the organ of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. A passacaglia is a series of variations. The melody that you first hear being played on the pedals (the first 15 notes) is the theme, that will keep repeating with barely any change 21 times during the piece while he will play variations with his hands. Maybe this is the greatest piece of music ever written for this instrument, a mystical, candle-lit funeral dance. Enjoy Cochereau's unparalleled ability to use the different tones and colors of the organ: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ipmIpMiKzqupY58.html I know this is quite long but I think it's worth going down a bit into this rabbit hole!

@@ferencercseyravasz7301 you have good taste, but you left out Duruflé ;)

@@JoshuaSobel I considered some, also Dupré but I think one has to be either musician or a seasoned listener to really appreciate them. Our friend is just making his first steps into this world. It's like someone who just had his first taste of alcohol and wants to broader his experience: at first you're not going to make him taste absinthe..

@@ferencercseyravasz7301 gotcha

J.S. Bach is definitely baroque. His many sons, including Johann Christian Bach, made the transition to the classical period.

I hope one day to go there. A trip to Europe is hard for me, because how could I possibly choose from all the incredible places to visit? How can I choose to see Notre Dame, when St Peter's exists? But how can I choose to see St Peter's, when Neuschwanstein exists? Should I go see the Brandenburg Gate, or the Arc de Triomph? I can't afford to visit Europe whenever I like, so I have to be selective. But I just can't prioritize when there's so many fantastic options.

@@reliantncc1864 I was 30 the first time I went to Europe. I was 50 before I was able to go again, but since then I have been to Europe many times. Assume you will be able to go more than once & don't stress about what to see the first time. You will be back.

To know and love Bach is to know and love music.

While that is true. it is also important to play an organ piece on period appropriate instruments. The Cavaillé-Coll organs are all romantic era instruments built in the second half of the 19th Century. They are perfect for the french symphonic organ music of the time. But to play Bach or any kind of german baroque on an instrument like that is questionable.

The acoustics of those stone church and cathedral buildings are phenomenal

Check out The Joy of Music. She went all over the world and played their great organs.

@@Quotenwagnerianer although Cavaille-Coll built organs in the romantic tradition he did retain much of the pipework of organs already existing with older pipework. A good example is St sulpice in Paris with 40% of pipework by Clicquot and preserved. I think though that Bach can be played on any organ. The genius of the master can be performed anywhere. But yes playing Bach on an 18th century German organ will always be special.

@@Quotenwagnerianer dear Quotenwagnerianer, Mr. Dupont's rendition is absoluty convincing, and this masterpiece of an organ has the might and the poetry to magnificently do justice to the piece. I understand what you mean, and I agree with you, it's terrific to play North- German music or Bach on a Schnitger or Frescobaldi on a XVII century Italian organ. But may be - English is not my native language, as you probably guessed - the word 'questionable' is a bit to strong?

Instrument technicians are often rather eccentric people. After all, they deal with instruments that are, by nd large, horrible neglected and abused by their owners. Churches will go decades without proper maintenance. But those pipes, as you know, are metal, subject to expansion with heat or humidity. There’s bits of leather that can deteriorate. And technicians themselves have very sensitive ears so if something is off, it can be very annoying. Like fingernails on a chalkboard for the rest of us.

They should do St Matthew passions. You need a snack for that.

And I just listen Wagner. 😂

There are not many...Bruckner, Mahler and then?

Now they need to listen to the ring cycle

The attention span these days is so...oh look, a bee!

As you well know of course there is a bigger one and i look forward to hearing it when it is fully restored :)

@@rojostu1 The Midmer-Losh organ at Boardwalk Convention Hall in Atlantic City, NJ. It has 33,114 pipes in 443 ranks. It has a lower number of ranks than the Wanamaker, 443 compared to 462, because it has three different keyboard sizes, 61 keys, 71 keys, and 85 keys. Sadly, a hurricane struck AC in September 1944 and damaged about 75 percent of the pipework. A $16 million dollar restoration project has brought it back to around 50 percent and it will be a few more years until everything is back.

This instrument in France has a keyboard compass of 58 notes.

@@TheHappyCooker68 Th AC organ alos has a 64' pipe

We have no idea when this piece was written. We do not even know for certain that Bach wrote it. The oldest surviving copy is from no earlier than 1730 (and possibly as late as 1760), in the hand of Johannes Ringk. But as it _is_ a copy, it could naturally originate from much earlier. But how much earlier can only be speculated at.

NOT. The piece was written to test the organ itself; Some organs called Romantic, could not do a good job of making all of their notes hearable but just generated a muddy mix. German Baroque organs were well suited for this piece. See Albert Schweitzer.

And now of days it's used to test the ability of sound systems to actually reproduce the notes correctly. Most systems fail, even more so on the low notes, they can not reproduce the sound of the organ's 32 foot pipes. They just get muddy on those notes.

Same for me. I was 5 years old when I found a CD and listed to it. It was Edvard Grieg and 5 year old me was flashed. I couldn’t imagine something this beautiful was possible. This is where my deep passion for classical Music began. And fingers crossed I’ll pass my entrance test for studying the piano soon ;)

Same here

Comparing today's popular music to classical is like comparing gutter to ocean IMO , i dont understand how people like today's song. I agree some are good of artists like shawn , justin etc but nah the new traps are straight nope IMO even cardi B

Amen, brother. It was Bach's harpsichord concerto in d minor, at age 13. Changed my life. I've got that LP (price tag $2.49!) framed on the wall. All hail JSB.

@@eustachiusvonackertiban1958 Grieg at age 5? Wow that's great. I was around 6 and it was Brahms Hungarian dance no.1. I hope you got to study piano 🎹

Then you'll definitely enjoy (the end of) Max Reger's "Fantasie & Fuge" on "Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme" or the end of the first movement of Widor's V. Symphonie pour orgue, or the Finale of his VI. Symphonie....

In a smaller, but similar way, is Chopin's prelude in E. I suggest you listen to a professional play it. It ends in minor, but it's such a relief when it plays.

JS Bach was beyond being a genius. His music will be relevant until the end of time. I am in awe of the mathematical precision of his music. To see it on the paper and her it at the same time is a trip. More so if you play it. I always felt he was the musician's muscian.

Bach like no other suceeds in depicting the essence of what it means to be alive, performing a dance with the universe.

Thank goodness there's no such thing as a soul! I've heard this piece live many times and I'm certain that the imaginary concept of a "soul" never shook out of me.

@@AndrewJens Here's your medal for inability to comprehend figurative language

Pity his first wife; wore the poor woman out and immediately started on another one...

@@BruinPhD2009 aye but he had to make up for all the other composers who died without children.

He had 20 children?

@@michaelquintana157 Yes he did (not kidding).

Sublime

True, it leaves you breathless.

Same thing with Bach’s St. Matthew Passion! The opening chorus has brought me to tears!

It's called "the queen of instruments". The number of combinations of pipes i e sound combinations that are possible to play on a normal organ is so great, that many of them are never ever being played.

Most churches in uk have one, even small parish churches

I was lucky enough to play one a couple of times. My grandfather once helped raising funds for the restoration of a pipe organ built in the middle 1800s in his hometown and he was given access by the parson, so he allowed me to play it a few times. I was studying a different piece by Bach, a two-voice invention, originally written for the harpsichord, but worked well for the organ too.

Some people also refer to it as the world’s first synthesizer. A keyboard that can mimic other instruments: flutes, strings, horns… centuries before electricity.

@@Tom55data Yes. Because there used to be so many people who played, and most churches had organs. And now hardly anybody knows how to play, few people go to church. I’ve been fortunately to hear some of the best in the world in my travels. They are marvels of engineering!

…Is the king of all musical instruments…not the queen…with lots of respect…😎

@Ruben: maybe rusty speaks German, just as Bach did and I do. our language has three articles and the organ is feminine. So to us she is a queen.

@@jts2561 I mean, some organs are feminine

@@rubenchables8303 depends on the language

@@rubenchables8303 Ooops, yes. In German, it is "Die Orgel", so the pipe organ is female in German.

It was mentioned right after they finished listening, at 12:43.

...and Yes played all 20 minutes of Close to the Edge, and 4 sides of Topographic Oceans in one night I saw them (and many other tunes too); Genesis played SZupper's Ready and the whole of Selling England ny the pound (and others) - all this with no written music on stage. It's called memory. Many musicians have it.

It was meant to be played loud. Also with minimum of 20-20Khz speakers.

It’s not that difficult to play from memory. You practice a piece so many times that you memorize it automatically. Muscle memory plays a big role. But once you stop practicing it for a while, your muscles forget it.

@@senefelder Finally, someone explained it. To me me personally, it's far more difficult to read a vista.

Thank you

No, that is incorrect. The period & genre is OLD MUSIC. Classical music ("Wiener Klassik") came AFTER Old Music. Baroque is NOT classical music.

I know nothing about music but studied art history, thank you!

There's more truth to this than most people think: distortion with an electric instrument was the first way to approximate the spectral quality of a pipe organ.

Ha! So true! I'm new to this channel, but have they reacted to/commented on guitarists who are known to have been influenced by "classical" pieces, and this piece in general? (Matt Bellamy from Muse specifically comes to mind, and Plug in Baby in particular... but I know there are many, many more!)

That's probably the origin of the phrase 'bringing the house down' too, lol

Are those metal things above the pedals work similarly to the stops?

@@ydgames4291 the toe studs can replicate the function of the hand stops (for use when hands are unable to do it) but some have unique functions like engaging the entire organ in one move. The pedals between them control volume and expression.

@@wrorchestra1 intresting

He wrote many toccatas.... ;-)

Have you heard the version by Sky, with Herbie Flowers on the bass?

To me, personally, the most impressive thing is actually reading in real time, a vista. Memorizing I can understand. You practice, practice, solve the technical issues, repeat separate parts over and over, until they become second nature, and eventually you put the entire piece together. It can take a month or several months, assuming you have the technique and the knowledge of the scales and chords already. I can understand all these. But actually playing it a vista without looking at the keyboards, that's the highest skill level in my mind. And I've seen people who can do it, no problem. But then they wonder how I can play things from memory. To me, playing from memory is natural, because I can't read fast enough.

The most fascinating argument is the one that assumes that this is actually a transcription of piece that Bach initially wrote for Violin solo and that was lost and only the Organ version survived.

Too simple? Let me introduce you to the Prelude in C Major. Just because something is simple does not mean it isn't an example of greatness by the master!

@@AethonZerus prelude in c major isn't simple harmonically, just cause it's easy doesn't mean it's simple. Also to the original poster I have no proof but it's always been my feeling that the tocatta wasn't by bach but the fugue was.

@@Me-uv6kc Relative to the heavily contrapuntal music Bach typically writes, the Prelude in C Major is extraordinarily simple from a harmonic perspective. Almost every measure in the whole piece features a single chord, which comprises the entirety of notes in the measure. It's hard to get more harmonically simple than that. Now in terms of the Toccata in D minor, what I see is a simplicity by design that mirrors Bach's approach in most of his other toccatas. If anything, a more complex example like the Dorian represents an outlier. Typically, things like toccatas and preludes are intended to be simple on purpose, as a sort of warmup for the complexity and depth of the fugue to follow. The idea that Bach would never write something simple is absurd.

The theory that it was originally for violin makes a lot of sense. People think that because it's very comfortable to play on the violin and some of the passages are very typical for Baroque violin music. There are some recordings by violinists and it really does sound nice.

one thing operated by electricity is the wind blower, which fills the bellows - the air reservoire to play... But back in the days of Bach, every organist was paying a "calcant" who was hand pumping big bellows with air manually... Not electricity and it sounds like this, it happened to me once in church, the power shut off but guess what? My friend was pumping the air in with hands with the old hand pump on the back of organ case.... Between all those levers - stops/registers, you´ll deffinetly find one named "Calcant", it pulled long wooden ribbon down to room with bellows and it rang a small bell to let calcant know that he need to start pumping the air :D what an absolute masterpiece, the organist, the organ builder and composer.

Bach contributed to well-tempered tuning, not equal tempered tuning (which came before and was being replaced with well-tempered systems in Bach's time).

Happy Birthday!

AWESOME! I come from a family of church musicians and the day I lose my fascination for pipe organs of every shape and size is the day I die. I fully believe the pipe organ is the first synthesizer (not to mention the RULER OF ALL INSTRUMENTS). I may be shot for saying this, the Louis Vierne “Westminster Carillon” tops the Widor Toccata for me. 😁. I hope you’ll always have great instruments with which to work.

@@BruinPhD2009 No shooting from me on that one, the Westminster Carillon kicks ass👍I just have a special place for the Widor because it was one of the first pieces of French romantic organ music I remember hearing that really got me pulled in. The Vierne carillon was probably a few pieces later on the same album😁

Best composer that ever lived!

Beethoven said, "He should be called sea, not brook, because of the never-ending richness of his harmonies." ('bach' is also the German word for 'brook') In German: _Nicht Bach, sondern Meer sollte er heißen, wegen seines unendlichen, unerschöpflichen Reichtums an Tonkombinationen und Harmonien_

This was said of JS Bach's son, CPE Bach.